Conversion Row

On Thursday, when his leader was denying in Parliament that conversion
took place in Agra, SP city president Farrukhsiyar and
other party functionaries were present in Devnagar of Agra, feeding the
57 affected families 'daal-chawal' and assuring them that nobody will
try to convert them again.

A letter by Rajeshwar Singh, the local area president of Dharm Jagran
Committee, an RSS wing in Agra, clearly asks for monetary help for the 'ghar
wapasi' agenda and claims to have 'reconverted' 40,000 Muslims and Christians
in western Uttar Pradesh last year.

Actor Dilip Kumar turns 92 today. I am trying to imagine how his morning
today would have looked like. The man - feel free to call him actor par
excellence, a legend, and a remarkable symbol of what used to be an inclusive
India - may have gingerly walked to his door to pick the newspaper.

While the BJP has denied its role in the Agra conversions, the party's
firebrand MP Yogi Adityanath has said that he will go to Aligarh on
December 25 for what the right-wing groups call a 'Purkhon ki ghar
vapsi' (Coming home of the ancestors) ceremony.

The woman eloped with her lover Ishver Singh, a home guard. The two
married on November 3 after she converted to Hinduism following which
they sought protection from the high court, according to police.

Battling fear and hunger, close to 300 Muslim slumdwellers from Devnagar locality in Agra are spending uneasy nights. Most of them are migrants
from West Bengal and eke out a living by collecting garbage.